With the falling prices of solar panels, the demand for solar street lighting solutions is rising sharply across the world. As per a report published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the prices of solar panels plunged from $10/W to around $2/W from 1980 to 2010, registering a decline of as much as 80% over 30 years.

Moreover, the prices further fell from $0.70/W to $0.35/W, which registered a drop of 50% from 2015 to 2019. The fall in the prices of these panels has caused a sharp decline in the prices of solar lighting systems, thereby boosting their popularity globally. Besides, the surging number of smart cities in several countries is also propelling the expansion of the global solar street lighting market.

In recent years, many smart city development projects have been launched in the U.S., China, India, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. China has invested quite heavily in these projects as compared to the other countries in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Additionally, a Letter of Intent was signed by South Korea with Malaysia in September 2018 for building a smart city in Kota Kinabalu, which is the capital of Sabah, Malaysia.

This smart city development project is predicted to massively push up the requirement for energy efficient lighting systems in the country. Furthermore, many countries, such as the U.S., India, Germany, and China are making huge investments in infrastructure development, particularly highway and roadway development, owing to the rising vehicular traffic.

Hence, it is clear that the demand for solar street lighting systems will surge in the coming years, primarily because of the growing popularity of solar energy, falling prices of solar panels, and increasing number of smart cities all over the world.